"I think the global economy is teetering. And we may just need this kind of parallel exchange system to keep the wheels of commerce turning and to meet one another's needs."

Helen Dew has spent the better part of nine decades quietly living the values that Living Economies advocates: growing her own food, trading locally, building community, and questioning economic systems that put profit before people and planet. Now, at 88, she's put it all down in writing in Helen Dew's memoir.

Looking Back and Looking Ahead, published in July 2025 by Quentin Wilson Publishing, is the story of a life well and purposefully lived, from childhood through marriage, raising four children in the Wairarapa, and decades of community activism. But as the title suggests, it doesn't stop at looking back. Helen also looks forward, imagining what life might look like for her grandchildren and great-grandchildren in 50 to 100 years' time.

This insightful work, Helen Dew's memoir, provides a critical perspective on the intersection of personal experience and broader economic themes.

A Woman Who Didn't Wait for Change

Long before sustainability became a movement, Helen was living it. The memoir weaves together the personal and the political, family life, food gardening, the Carterton Farmers' Market, complementary currencies, and a lifetime of thinking carefully about how we organise our economies and our communities.

Central to Helen's philosophy is the idea that we need to see ourselves as part of the planetary system, not in charge of a separate one. As she told the Wairarapa Times-Age at her launch: "We've got to design an economy that is in tune with that."

Helen is realistic about the pace of change in the current system; she acknowledges that it is deeply embedded and powerful. But she's also clear that the seeds of something better are already in our hands, and that the choices we make today determine what kind of future we leave behind.

From Stories to Book

The memoir began modestly. Helen thought she was simply writing a few stories for her children. It grew into something much more, shaped with the help of writer coach Danielle Wilson, edited by filmmaker Antoinette Wilson (who made the 2024 documentary Living the Change featuring Living Economies Trustees Phil Stevens and Helen, who was 85 at the time), and published by their father, Quentin Wilson. The whole process took just seven months.

The result is an invitation to reawaken community spirit, to reflect on the choices we make, and to recognise that even in difficult times, the capacity for change is closer than we think